A collage from 8-year-old Josephine Fischer

This year marked the sixth Inglewood Open Studios, an event hosted by the artists whose studios are open to the public during one November weekend every year. Lovers of art from Inglewood and elsewhere turn out to visit the studios via the shuttles provided by the city. This year’s event took place Saturday and Sunday, November 10 and 11.

A total of 12 venues were made available to view art. The two main locations were the Beacon Arts Building, located on 808 N. LaBrea Avenue, and the Beacon’s sister studios, affectionately known as 1019 West, located at 1019 W. Manchester Blvd. Both buildings, as well as all the tour stops, are in Inglewood.

Inglewood Open Studios was founded by Rene Fox, the current gallery director. After a 2009 article in the L.A. Times, the event started to gain attention. Since then, many artists from the Inglewood and the surrounding area have come together to help this event grow. Currently there are approximately 70 artists in the two main buildings as well as many others in their respective workspaces throughout Inglewood.

Each of the two days was accompanied by a performance courtesy of Fisher Ensemble, which is an act in progress from Seattle composer Garrett Fisher. Those who attended the performance were witnessed the work’s debut performance Southern California. He is currently working on an op- era performance called “Magda G” and has high hopes to gain recognition in Southern California for this work in progress.

Michael Massenburg is the president and founding member of Inglewood Cultural Arts (ICA). Michael is responsible for bringing various forms of art to Inglewood, and Open Studios is one of the many events that take place. He had much to say about the subject of art and what it can does for the people of Inglewood: “People don’t realize that art is apparent everywhere. From the music you enjoy to your favorite movies, we all love different forms of art to some extent. What Open Studios can help do is demystify art; it gives opportunities for people to get new understandings of things they don’t under- stand. We have to constantly remind people to love the type of art that you love, and that it’s OK to not like certain art or to even be upset
by it. This is important and needs to be done so you can open your eyes to what interests you, and what doesn’t interest you. The power of art lets you know you’re alive!” Learn more about the ICA at www.inglewoodculturalarts. org.

Venturing about the four floors of the Beacon Arts Building, one may have been caught up in analyzing the different pieces of work. Such a mental exposition may have occurred standing before a monumental brain sculpture made of gummy worms. Some of the city-sponsored shuttles’ tour stops were in the Hyde Park area. Kenneth Ober, who runs his studio out of the Hyde Park area, decided to paint the image of fire- works at the instant they exploded. He stated that no one else does this type of art- work, and so he decided to do it himself. That kind of out of the box thinking is what interests me about artists. Even though almost every avenue of art has been created, there are still ways to create art that isn’t necessarily appreciated or seen enough.

The opportunity to peer into the mind of the artist as a young child may also have been a facet of the tour. Josephine Fischer presented collages that appeared to mock social media in what may have been a kind of thinking well beyond her eight years. Fischer is fond of collage work, I look forward to seeing more from this artist as she develops in the coming years.

Inglewood Open Studios is an annual event that is held one weekend every November. For more information about this year’s tour as well as the artists that showed, please visit the website at http://inglewoodopenstudios.blogspot.com.